This was an unusually strong year for Best Animated Feature at The Academy Awards.

The Mitchells vs The Machines was the most unexpected delight of 2021. A Sony Animation production, the film was dumped on Netflix in April, eschewing the expected theatrical release. While many felt robbed of seeing it on the big screen, it performed extremely well on streaming as the world was charmed by a family fighting a robot invasion on a college road trip. The movie was funny as hell, casually queer-friendly, and used a gorgeous 2D/3D hybrid animation style that’s been gaining popularity lately. 

Luca was another strong feature from Pixar, coming off of Soul’s Oscar win last year. The low-stakes and light-paced film was an endearing coming-of-age tale set in small-town Italy. Luca represented a singular director’s vision as opposed to the more committee-based work of most studio animations. A decade earlier, Italian-born director Enrico Casarosa used similar character designs and animation styles in his short film La Luna, and it gave Luca a unique look compared to most Pixar films.

Encanto was the breakout hit from Walt Disney Animation Studios — a fun, small-scale musical set in rural Colombia centered on family and generational trauma. The film did moderately well at the box office, but it truly blew up when it was added to Disney+ a month later. The charming film instantly spawned an online fandom and sent its staple song, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. 

The weakest link in the triple Disney affair last year was Raya and the Last Dragon. An attempt at showcasing Southeast Asian culture, this action-adventure film got decent reviews but fumbled at the box office. It also faced its fair share of criticism for the lack of Southeast Asian voice actors and directors in the production, the homogenization of dozens of real-life cultures, and its confusing moral message.

The final nominee, and a real gem of this awards season, was a Danish animated documentary titled Flee. Directed by Jonas Poher Rasmussen, Flee is a harrowing portrayal of refugee, Amin (real name not provided), and his journey from Afghanistan to Denmark. It’s a heartbreaking and devastating yet ultimately hopeful story. Animated documentaries are still a rare occurrence in the film world (yet, this is not the first one nominated for an Oscar) and they’re an innovative way of telling difficult stories without the sort of exploitation that could occur using real footage.

A notable snub was Mamoru Hosada’s Belle from usual Oscar-magnet distributor, GKids. Usually, The Academy nominates one or two international or independent animated movies. As more streaming services and distributors jump into the ring, GKids films don’t seem the automatic safe token like they used to. Expectedly, Encanto won the Oscar, making it the 10th winner in 12 years to come from the Disney pipeline. It wasn’t a shocking decision, but it was a disappointing one. It feels like time and time again, The Academy does not respect animation as a medium. Instead, voters seem to see animation merely as a category for children’s movies with Disney’s brand name beating out the competition year after year, regardless of quality.

Compared to other years this didn’t feel as egregious. Encanto was a fantastic movie and one of Disney’s better offerings over the decade. Nonetheless, I couldn’t help but side-eye a bit when the all-white directing team accepted their awards and “thanked” Colombia for allowing them to tell their story to the world.

Time will tell when The Academy will give non-studio films a shot, but Oscars or not, animation will preserve as a diverse and ever-evolving medium.